Boston Virtually Concedes East Top Seed to Cavs; Loses at Home to Cleveland, 123-116
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 02 Mar 2025
Defending champion Boston Celtics have virtually conceded the top seed to the Cleveland Cavaliers after dropping a 123-116 defeat to the Cavs at home, tying its total regular season 18 losses with only two dozen games left.
The defeat likewise tied the season series between the two squads at two wins apiece. Boston was looking at least at winning its season series with Cleveland as the Cavs at 48-10 before this game was well ahead of the Celtics by six games. Boston was the last team to beat the Cavaliers on February 5 before Cleveland goes on an eight game winning tear.
The victory therefore stretched Cleveland winning streak to nine and extended its lead to seven games over Boston which would be very hard to overhaul with only so many games left before the current season ends.
Boston finished first in the East last year with a 64-18 record and went on to clinch its first NBA Finals championship since 2008 against the Dallas Mavericks.
Cleveland finished fourth last season with a 47-25 record and advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference semi-finals where it lost to the New York Knicks. Its current 49-10 record assures the Cavaliers their best finish and standing since the Lebron James era.
The Celtics were without major pieces-Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday- but Jaylen Brown who was declared as conditional was able to play and scored 37 points. Jayson Tatum scored a game high 46 points but with only Derrick White as the only Celtics in double figure with 16 points, Boston fell to the balanced production of Cleveland.
Five Cavs scored in double figures led by Donovan Mitchell with 41 points. Guard Darius Garland tossed 20 points on top of team high 7 assists. Evan Mobley and Jarett Allen frolicked in the absence of Porzingis with Mobley scoring 17 points and pulling down a team high 12 rebounds while Allen was good for 10 points and 4 rebounds. DeAndre Hunter added 12 points and 5 boards.
Three other Cavs- Ty Jerome, Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro scored at least 5 points and contributed in rebounding in defense with Okoro having a couple of blocks in the crucial moments of the game.
Boston (42-18) hopes to bounce back against the West's second running Denver Nuggets starring Nikola Jokic tomorrow in another home game. Cleveland looks to extend its winning streak against the Portland Trailblazers also tomorrow also in their homecourt.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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